Comment by close04

> and make sure people aren't getting mediocre versions of Windows after spending over a thousand dollars on a Windows machine.

You already had everything you needed to make sure of that, you said you're a pro user. You're running away from your very basic responsibility of looking at the spec sheet, and you're blaming Microsoft or the OEM for this. You chose a Windows Home system probably because it was cheaper than others. This is one way it was cheaper, you probably got the Home license for free".

Many people would go for cheaper or no license in order to get better hardware. MS is already strong arming OEMs to bundle Windows licenses, they should absolutely not use their power to force them even more.

> I'm definitely going to be buying System76 for my next desktop

Perfectly valid (and great) choice. But you could pay a whopping $82.000 for a workstation and it doesn't come with a Windows Pro/Enterprise license or RHEL Workstation Standard (lifetime, not just the one year) subscription. MS and IBM should absolutely make sure one of these licenses is included with any system over $1k. :)